Quote:
Originally Posted by coplate
I got my next replacement today, and I am really torn on what do to.
This one seems to have the worst of both worlds, the other replacement had a more even lighting, but the whole screen was yellowed like old plastic.
This one has uneven lighting, and looks yellow.
I want to support amazon making the 7" screen, but I don't know if I am just being overly picky now. Now that I have noticed this uneven gradient, I'm not sure I will ever be able to un-see it if it is going to be present on every device.
Or if I just keep getting replacements from a stone that has had this effect in it, and I just need to keep trying.
This yellowing is very noticeable when I put it next to my paperwhite, thats my gold standard for "white" right now .
I'm open to any input people have. I may just send it all back, and try again next year?
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Coplate, i feel for you. i've been on a parallel and similar journey of being perhaps overly picky but once you are aware, i think it's hard to shut your brain off.
for me: (in 3 steps of failure over the past week)
1. Oasis 2: mild white to yellow gradient that would have been acceptable i think if i didn't have hand comfort issues (see my earlier posts). yet even that being said, it was noticeable if i looked for it. i am guessing there is not a perfect screen out there...just varying degrees of this gradient. to me, this, even with the mild gradient, is the best Kindle Screen i've ever seen. i liked the creamy white background (not too harsh or daylight like) and the text "popped" off the screen with the flush glass. i really wish i could hold it comfortable while lying on my back in bed.
2. Oasis 1: i picked up a refurb model in hopes that it might be more comfortable for my hand (verdict: it is relative to the Oasis 2, but i'm still waffling on whether i am just better off with another PW3 or Voyage (see step 3 and comments below)). the O1 has a more prominent white to yellow gradient than the O2, just slightly worse...the more noticeable thing are two distinct light cones that are hard to ignore.
3. i had Prime Now send me a Voyage today after all the rave reviews of people with perfect screens and thinking its similar form factor to my PW3, i'd be able to hold it more comfortably that either Oasis. but ... Yuck! this one doesn't even have a gradient. basically the top 40% of the screen has yellow/orange hue and that abruptly becomes white below it for the remaining 60%. i confess that i thought that top bottom gradients are easier on the eyes than left right. but in this case, no way. it is plain awful. it also has an array (5) of light cones on the bottom.
as luck would have it, my PW3 whose backlight seems to come on every now and then, is working at the moment. so i lay the Oasis 1, Voyage, PW3 side by side (the Oasis 2 is not with me and already packaged up for return)...
the PW3, has a yellow tint and is blotchy, but is less offensive than the step-like change in color on the Voyage. in comparison, the Oasis 1 looks excellent. i can see the left right gradient, but its no contest, it's the best of the three screens i had sitting side by side. (i also confess: i didn't even think it was very blotchy until i got the Oasis 2. that experienced raised my expectation for what is possible in terms of light uniformity)
so, in summary: screen quality is very inconsistent between the units, and it doesn't seem that price is necessarily correlated to what you'll get. i would have thought that Amazon would have tightened up their QC by now after years of this front light design, but apparently they have not. (i went through several PW exchanges a few years back in getting the ones my wife and i have...my wife PW2 is close to perfect -- nice even white, no cones, no gradient but lower res letters, my PW3 was acceptable especially after a long saga of problems/exchanges, it basically cost me $50 after some promotional credits granted for my frustration over defects (not just the screen) on prior units) so lived with it and stopped complaining. to me the blotches were acceptable with the 300 dpi vs the 212 dpi on my wife's clean background.
i can only guess that to many people, the screens gradients/cones don't matter. i guess if i read mostly during the day, either outside or in a well lit room, all of these gradients and cone issues would be not very important (the basic kindle would be just fine if it weren't for the 167 dpi resolution). but because my primary use of the kindle is to read in bed each night for 20-30 minutes, i value a clean looking screen. and as i've learned, in my special case of needing to lie on my back reading, i need a e-reader i can comfortably grip without hurting or tiring my hands.
i wish i knew what i was going to do next. i'd honestly pay $200 for a perfect screened PW3 with no gradient or light cones as i know i can hold it comfortably. but now that i'm aware of these gradient issues, i don't know how or when i'll get a unit that satisfies my neurosis for "perfection" or getting something that doesn't distract me from the reading itself.
maybe hope and pray that my PW3 will start working reliably again?